Zeitschrift für klinische und experimentelle Dermatologieforschung
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Abstrakt

Efficacy and Safety of Narrowband-UVB in Early Stage Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma in Kuwaiti Patients

Iman Almasry M*, Albathali AA, Alajmi H, Al-Lafi A, Sadek A, Lazarevic V, Khamis R, Yakout EH

Background: Phototherapy is one of corner stone therapeutic lines in dermatology, and narrowband UVB (NB- UVB) type is one of used treatment in many dermatoses including mycosis fungoides (MF).

Objective: In this study, we analysed the effect of NB-UVB in the treatment of patients with early stage MF.

Methods: The response of 29 patients (8 stage I A, 18 stage I B and 3 stage IIA) with patch stage MF to NB-UVB phototherapy, three times weekly was evaluated. Seventeen patients had skin type III, eleven patients had skin type IV and one patient had skin type II). Clinically the studied MF patients were presented with hypo-hyper pigmentation, poikiloderma and eczematous skin lesions. Mean follow-up period was 3.6 year.

Results: The 29 patients had complete clinical remission; the minimum number sessions for complete remission was 25 sessions and minimum cumulative dose was 18 joule. There are 18(62.1%) patients did not get relapse after remission, while the rest (37.9 %) have relapse after remission. Reported side effects were, itching in 10 (34.5 %) patients, erythema in 9 (31.0%), burning sensation in 4 (14.8%) and 6 (20.7%) patients did not have any side effect.

Conclusion: MF is a cutaneous -T- cell lymphoma, that may be hard to make a diagnosis at early stage, as skin lesions mimic some benign dermatoses, like eczema or psoriasis. Phototherapy is one of tolerated treatment modalities in M.F, especially NB-UVB, can be considered a safe and effective treatment for early stage MF (patch and plaque), even at long term.